Track suspension for sliding doors



July 7, 1959 E. L. GUERRANT TRACK SUSPENSION FOR SLIDING DOORS FiledFeb. 2'7, 1957 Mi i E OMO/VDS L. GUERRA/V T INVENTOR.

A TTOR/VEY United States Patent TRACK SUSPENSION FOR SLIDING DOORSEdmonds L. Guerrant, Fort Worth, Tex.

Application February 27, 1957, Serial No. 642,902

1 Claim. (Cl. 16-94) This invention relates to track suspension meansfor sliding doors and is directed to an arrangement of bolts and spacerstherefor.

A common cause of binding or sticking in the opening and closing ofsliding doors is bending of the door supporting track. Such bending maybe due to roof loads transmitted to the track through the rough headerto the finish header, or by reason of warping or improperly dried woodin the door frame. Since the lower edges of sliding doors are close tothe floor surfaces, even slight longitudinal bending of the track maycause one lower corner of a door to contact the floor and bind the dooragainst further sliding movement.

An object of the invention is to provide track suspension means soconstructed and arranged that usual bending of the door supporting trackis reduced or eliminated, and whereby the lower edges of the doors aremaintained substantially parallel with and spaced from the floorsurface.

Another object is to provide a sliding door installation wherein timeand material required to block the finish header to the rough header areeliminated.

A further object is to provide a bolt and spacer combination forsecuring a sliding door track to a header in such a manner that ends ofthe track are normally and slightly curved upwardly to provide acantilever effect for supporting the doors.

A further object is to permit the installation of preassembled slidingdoor units without the necessity of blocking to the rough header.

These and other objects will become apparent from the followingdescription and the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a broken elevation showing sliding doors installed in therough opening of a door, and which installation includes the features ofthe invention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of a corner portion of Figure 1, andadditionally shows a broken area of the wall surface and door trim.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a further enlarged sectional view and shows one of the boltsand its associated spacer with reference to the finish header andsupported track, and

Figure 5 is a broken perspective view of a sliding door track and aspacer thereon.

In the drawing, a pair of sliding doors are supported on a track 11within a door opening which is generally comprised of a rough header 12having rough jambs 13 supporting the ends thereof. As in conventionalpractice a wall surface 14 extends to and covers the rough header 12 andj-ambs 13, and the usual trim 15 is placed therearound. In the presentinvention the finish header 16 is spaced from the rough header 12, andwhich finish header is supported at its ends by finish jarnbs 17 securedto the rough jambs 13 with the usual shims 18 therebetween. Otherconventional elements shown are the studs 19 comprising a part of thewall construction and the fascia 20 on the lower forward edge of thefinish header 16.

The track 11 is generally channel shaped and includes a horizontal web21, depending flanges 22 along the sides of the web, and upwardly formedchannels or rails 23 along the lower edges of the flanges. Preferably,the rails 23 are V-shaped in cross section and the peripheries of therollers 24 operating therein are round in cross section. As shown inFigure 3, the rollers 24 are secured to and positioned above the ends ofthe doors 10 by means of fittings 25.

The track 11 is spaced from the finish header 16 by means of a pair ofspacers 26 therebetween and the header and track secured together bymeans of bolts 27. As shown in Figure 1, a bolt 27 is adjacent eachspacer 26, but positioned outwardly thereof with respect to the centerof the rail. The combination of a spacer 26 and a bolt 27 is locatedapproximately over the center of each door 10 when the doors are intheir closed positions. In wider doors, the combination of spacer andbolt may be between the center of the closed door and the adjacentfinish jamb, but spaced from the end of the track 11.

When the bolts 27 are tightened, the center portion of the rail 11 isslightly deflected downwardly, but not enough to cause the lower cornerof either door to contact the floor (not shown). At the same time, thefree ends of the rails are deflected upwardly, and by reason of thearrangement of bolts 27 relative to their adjacent spacers 26, which actas fulcrums, a cantilever support is effected at the ends of said rails.Since the finish header 16 is spaced from and independent of the roughheader 12 roof loads cannot be transferred to the track 11. Even thoughthe finish header 16 should bend downwardly at its center, so as it doesnot touch the track 11, the track will remain sufficiently straight toprevent the doors 10 from contacting the floor. The weight of the closeddoors 10 bends the extending ends of the track 11 downwardly, but notenough to cause the corresponding lower corners of the doors to touchthe floor. By reason of the spaced relation of the track 11 and finishheader 16, and the described positions of the spacers 26 and bolts 27inwardly of the ends of the track and header, downward bending of thelatter at its center does not have the screw thread stripping effect aswould occur if the bolts were located near the ends of the track andheader.

The invention is not limited to the exemplary construction herein shownand described, but may be made in various ways within the scope of theappended claim.

What is claimed is:

Track suspension means for sliding doors in a wall opening including arough header, said suspension means comprising: a finish header beneathand spaced from said rough header, a bendable track spaced from andbeneath said finish header, a pair of fulcrum spacers be tween saidtrack and said finish header and located substantially over a doorcenter when said door is positioned at either end of said track, a boltthrough said track and secured in said finish header adjacent each saidspacer outwardly thereof with reference to the transverse center of saidtrack, the lengths of said tracks outwardly of said bolts being freelysuspended.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS369,451 Kasson Sept. 6, 1887 623,035 Richards Apr. 11, 1899 708,060Meyer Sept. 2, 1902 1,695,239 Norton Dec. 11, 1928 FOREIGN PATENTS663,994 Great Britain Jan. 2, 1952 OTHER REFERENCES Track 2800 asillustrated on page 225 of American Builder, October 1955.

